It would the height of the ridiculous to think I, me, Mary would hunt Howlers, beasts, so they say, like wolves in the woods, but I think that is what the Officer Isaac wanted me to do, hunt through reports to find a mysterious woman, marked by these animals.  I mean it is almost like something out of Grim’s tale.  Dark world, dark forests, monsters everywhere and wolves with human faces stalking after victims. I would dismiss all as fantasy, but why shouldn’t I make it a fantasy, my dark fantasy.  It is no more a living nightmare than Frodo and Sam making their way through Mordor in a pack of orcs and goblins is it? They call me crazy. I am the only one who sees the world the way it is.  There are castles, knights, Grendle-like men, and wicked sulty women.  I am sure that as I turn the pages, I will find petty kings arise and untold horrors in every new Gothic chapter. Me? I am the survivor, the villager that hung back when the rest confront the warlord. I am the clever one who sat on the hill watching when the land burned. I am the bard that knew when to sling a pack and move on… but then again. Here I am in this hospital, and when the officer said find me a howler, what did I do? I went a roving through patient files, but that quest failed and I came back unable to say who the mystery woman, was and the trail into the dark woods to find the Howlers vanished.  I have made a fatal error in knitting myself to the hospital. I made a mistake. Now I am as trapped as the 150 virgins in any medieval knight’s tale.  Oh dear, I hope I don’t get boiled in oil.